refers to the experience that emptiness manifests in
form. Nirmanakaya is the means of communication
with others. The Heart Sutra says, “Form is empti-
ness; emptiness is form.” Nirmanakaya refers to the
fact that phenomena actually manifest. Trees, grass,
buildings, traffic, each of us, and the whole world
actually manifest. That’s the only way we can expe-
rience emptiness: appearance / emptiness, sound /
emptiness. They’re simultaneous. Whatever appears
is vividly unreal in emptiness. Emptiness isn’t really
empty in the way we might think of it; it’s vibrant
and it manifests, yet usually all we see is the mani-
festation. We solidify it, we solidify ourselves, we
solidify what we see. The whole thing becomes like
a war or a seduction, and we are totally caught in
the drama.
The fourth kaya is svabhavikakaya. Svabhavika-
kaya means that the previous three arise at once;
they’re not really three separate things. The space,
the energy, and the appearance arise together.
The slogan says, “Seeing confusion [the sense of
obstacle, the things we don’t want, the sense of inter-
ruption] as the four kayas / Is unsurpassable shuny-
ata protection.” Shunyata is protection because it
cuts through the solidity of our thoughts, which are
how we make everything—including ourselves—
concrete and separate. It cuts through the way we’re
over here and everything else is over there.
90 Cutting the Solidity of Thoughts
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